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A proposal to separate air traffic control from the federal government has found its most powerful ally in President Trump.

But the contentious plan still faces a bumpy road in Congress, where some key Republicans remain opposed to the idea.

Proponents of the spinoff plan acknowledge that it’s going to take far more than just Trump’s stamp of approval, delivered in his budget proposal last week, to move the needle on the thorny issue.

They want to see Trump put some real muscle behind the proposal when it’s up for debate on Capitol Hill later this year, such as personally reaching out to members, talking about the issue in public and visiting countries such as Canada that already have a similar system in place.

The Trump administration released its first federal budget proposal on March 16, for the first time revealing its support of calls to restructure the Federal Aviation Administration by creating a separate entity to manage air traffic control. The Fiscal Year 2018 budget would also eliminate funding for the Essential Air Service (EAS) program that subsidizes airline flights to rural airports, a longstanding goal of congressional Republicans.

President Donald Trump’s $1.15 trillion “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” proposes substantial cuts to discretionary spending by various federal agencies; the Department of Transporation (DOT), the FAA’s parent organization, would see its discretionary spending reduced by 13 percent, from $18.6 billion to $16.2 billion. Discretionary spending represents about 19 percent of the DOT’s $98 billion overall budget.